This scene elaborates on and gives additional dimension to the character of Shylock. We know of Jessica's intended elopement, and thus we understand Shylock's sense of foreboding when he speaks of "some ill a-brewing." Indeed, ill is brewing for him, and much of the drama in this scene is derived from the fact that both Jessica and Launcelot are anxious to get Shylock on his way so that they can make final arrangements for the elopement. Their suspense at his indecision as to whether to go or stay is the key to the drama here; Shylock says, "I am bid forth . . . But wherefore should I go? . . . But yet I'll go . . . I am right loath to go." Launcelot, in his excitement and anxiety, almost gives the elopement plans away. He lets slip the phrase "They have conspired together" (22), but he immediately covers his mistake with some confused nonsense about his own prophetic dream; he predicts that there will be a masque at the party because his "nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday." This is not only a comic parallel of Shylock's superstition concerning dreams, but also diverts the old moneylender from the suggestion that his daughter might be planning to elope.
Also central to this scene is Shylock's concern with his possessions; note, for example, his obsession with locking and guarding the house, which he entrusts to Jessica. He calls her to him and gives her his keys, then almost takes them back again: "I am loath to go," he says. The emphasis is on the protection of his wealth, and this emphasis appears again when he says, "Hear you me, Jessica: / Lock up my doors," and it occurs again in "stop my house's ears — I mean my casements"; even the idea of music entering his house is repellent to Shylock. He warns Jessica that perhaps he "will return immediately," thus producing new anxiety in her — and in the emotions of the audience. Shylock's last words — "shut doors after you. / Fast bind, fast find" — illustrate his inability to leave his possessions. Yet, even so, Shakespeare manages to suggest in his portrayal of Shylock's miserliness a kind of unspoken, grudging affection for his daughter and, in this scene, for Launcelot; he calls Jessica, affectionately, "Jessica my girl," and of Launcelot he says, "the patch [a kindly nickname for a clown] is kind enough." Still, though, both phrases are immediately followed by a return to his central fixation — his possessions. The great irony of the scene, of course, lies in our knowledge that while Shylock is concerned with his valuables, it is his daughter that he is about to lose, and it is to her that he entrusts his possessions. This is classic dramatic irony.
